The Altair 837016 LED outdoor fixture from Costco

My front porch lights sustained damage in a recent storm, so I looked to replace them. Costco offers the Altair 837016 for about $38, and it has two energy-saving features: It turns itself off if it’s light outside, and it uses LEDs that deliver 950 lumens while consuming 10.5 watts.

And they do it while looking like $40 lights. You can also buy them from Amazon if there isn’t a Costco near you.

I installed them under a front porch, so they’re in the shade. But when I installed them in the early evening, they still sensed enough light not to turn themselves on. They really do turn themselves on around dusk, or if a storm blows in a little before dusk. The photosensors save energy and save the useful life of the LEDs, which is nice. If you accidentally flip the outside lights on, the lights still won’t come on unless you need them.

The light itself is 4500K, visibly harsher than any indoor LED I’ve used, but outside that’s OK. You won’t be reading by this light. The LEDs have a 60,000-hour life expectancy, so the lights should last about 13 years if I run them for 12 hours a night. The brightness is close to what 75W incandescents throw out. It’s enough light to light up the porch and light the path from the driveway to the front door. It’s enough light for me to see the house number visible from the street. So the lights do everything we buy lights to do.

Unlike incandescent or CFL light, it won’t attract bugs, which is nice.

The only real downside is that the LEDs and drivers, while replaceable, and instructions are included, the instructions don’t say where to buy them. That’s really only an issue if they fail outside of the warranty period.

Even with that downside, I’m happy with the lights. I’m glad I bought them, and I might buy more.

Interesting link, Steve. So far, I see fewer bugs swarming the front door. It hasn’t been a long time and prime time bug season is still a bit off, but I don’t think they attract as many as the CFLs they replaced. I’ll keep an eye on it though.

One thing you might try is replacing your bulbs with a set of the cheapie Philips bulbs that Home Depot is selling for $5/pair to see if it helps you. If they don’t, you can move the bulbs inside.